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E.B. White
|death_place= North Brooklin, Maine |occupation= Author |alma_mater= Cornell University |signature= EB White Signature.svg |influenced= Aprilynne Pike }} Elwyn Brooks White (July 11, 1899 - October 1, 1985) was an American poet, essayist, and children's writer, co-author of the English language style guide, The Elements of Style, and author of children's books Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. Life White was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the youngest child of Samuel Tilly White, president of a piano firm, and Jessie Hart White. He served in the army before going to college. White attended Cornell University, where he served as editor of The Cornell Daily Sun with classmate Allison Danzig, who later became a sportswriter for The New York Times. While picked up the nickname "Andy" at Cornell University, where tradition confers that moniker on any male student surnamed White, after Cornell co-founder Andrew Dickson White. While at Cornell, White was also a member of the Aleph Samach and Quill and Dagger societies and Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI). He earned a B.A. from Cornell in 1921. He worked for United Press International and the American Legion News Service in 1921 and 1922, and then became a reporter for the Seattle Times in 1922 and 1923. He then worked for two years with the Frank Seaman advertising agency as a production assistant and copywriter before returning to New York City in 1924. Not long after The New Yorker was founded in 1925, White began submitting manuscripts to it. Katharine Angell, the literary editor, recommended to magazine editor and founder Harold Ross that White be taken on as staff. However, it took months to convince him to come to a meeting at the office and further weeks to convince him to agree to work on the premises. Eventually he agreed to work in the office on Thursdays. In 1929, White and Angell were married. They had a son, Joel White, a naval architect and boatbuilder, who owned Brooklin Boatyard in Brooklin, Maine. Katharine's son from her first marriage, Roger Angell, has spent decades as a fiction editor for The New Yorker and is well known as the magazine's baseball writer. James Thurber described White as being a quiet man, disliking publicity, who during his time at The New Yorker would slip out of his office via the fire escape to a nearby branch of Schrafft's to avoid visitors whom he didn't know. :Most of us, out of a politeness made up of faint curiosity and profound resignation, go out to meet the smiling stranger with a gesture of surrender and a fixed grin, but White has always taken to the fire escape. He has avoided the Man in the Reception Room as he has avoided the interviewer, the photographer, the microphone, the rostrum, the literary tea, and the Stork Club. His life is his own. He is the only writer of prominence I know of who could walk through the Algonquin lobby or between the tables at Jack and Charlie's and be recognized only by his friends.James Thurber, "E.B.W., Credos and Curio White died on October 1, 1985 with Alzheimer's disease at his farm home in North Brooklin, Maine. He is buried in the Brooklin Cemetery beside his wife Katharine, who died in 1977. Writing White published his earliest article in The New Yorker magazine in 1925, joined the staff in 1927 and continued to contribute for around 6 decades. Best recognized for his essays and unsigned "Notes and Comment" pieces, he gradually became the most important contributor to The New Yorker at a time when it was arguably the most important American literary magazine. From the beginning to the end of his career at the New Yorker, he frequently provided what the magazine calls "Newsbreaks" (short, witty comments on oddly worded printed items from many sources) under various categories such as "Block That Metaphor." He also served as a columnist for Harper's Magazine from 1938 to 1943. In 1949, White published Here Is New York, a short book based upon a Holiday magazine article that he had been asked to write. The article reflects the writer's appreciation of a city that provides its residents with both "the gift of loneliness and the gift of privacy," and concludes with a dark note touching upon the forces that may destroy the city that the writer loves. This prescient "love letter" to the city was re-published in 1999 on the 100th anniversary of his birth, with an introduction by his stepson, Roger Angell. In 1959, White edited and updated The Elements of Style. This handbook of grammatical and stylistic guidance for writers of American English had been written and published in 1918 by William Strunk, Jr., one of White's professors at Cornell. White's rework of the book was extremely well received, and further editions of the work followed in 1972, 1979, and 1999; an illustrated edition followed in 2005. (The illustrator, Maira Kalman, is a contributor to The New Yorker.) The volume is a standard tool for students and writers and remains required reading in many composition classes. The complete history of The Elements of Style is detailed in Mark Garvey's Stylized: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style. Children's books In the late 1930s, White turned his hand to children's fiction on behalf of a niece, Janice Hart White. Stuart Little was published in 1945, and Charlotte's Web in 1952. Stuart Little initially received a lukewarm welcome from the literary community due in part to the reluctance to endorse it by Anne Carroll Moore, the retired but still powerful children's librarian from the New York Public Library. However, both books went on to receive high acclaim. In 1970, White published a 3rd children's novel, ''The Trumpet of the Swan.'' Recognition In 1978, White won an honorary Pulitzer Prize for his work as a whole. Other awards he received included a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 and memberships in a variety of literary societies throughout the United States. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1973.E.B. White 1899-1985, Poetry Foundation. Web, Dec. 30, 2012. In 1970 his children's books, Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web, jointly won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, a major prize in children's literature. In 1973 his 3rd children's novel, The Trumpet of the Swan, received the Sequoyah Award from Oklahoma and the William Allen White Award from Kansas, both of which were awarded by students voting for their favorite book of the year. Awards *1977 L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award, Letters of E. B. White *1978 Pulitzer Special Award for Literature In popular culture A 1973 Canadian animated short, The Family That Dwelt Apart, is based on White's short story of the same name and is narrated by him. In 2005, a New York composer named Nico Muhly premiered a short opera based on The Elements of Style. Publications Poetry *''The Lady is Cold: Poems by E.B.W.. New York & London: Harper, 1929. *''The Fox of Peapack, and other poems. New York: Harper, 1938. *''Poems and Sketches''. New York: Harper & Row, 1981. *''Song of the Queen Bee. Vancouver: Alcuin Society, 1969. Short fiction *''Quo vadimus? or, The case for the bicycle (sketches). New York & London: Harper, 1939. Non-fiction *''Is Sex Necessary? or, Why you feel the way you do'' (with James Thurber). New York & London, 1929. *''Ho Hum: Newsbreaks from the New Yorker''. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1931. *''Another Ho Hum: More newsbreaks from the New Yorker''. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1932. *''Alice Through the Cellophane''. New York: John Day, 1933. *''Everyday is Saturday'' (essays). New York & London: Harper, 1934. *''Farewell to Model T''. New York: Putnam, 1936. *''One Man's Meat]]'' (essays). New York & London: Harper, 1942. *''The Wild Flag: Editorials from the New Yorker on federal world government and other matters.. Resident Press: 1943; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946. *''Here Is New York. New York: Harper, 1949. *''The Elements of Style'' (with William Strunk, Jr.). New York: Macmillan, 1959,1972, 1979, 1999, 2005. *''The Points of My Compass: Letters from the East, the West, the North, the South''. New York: Harper & Row, 1962. *''Essays of E.B. White''. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. *''Writings from "The New Yorker"'' (edited by Rebecca M. Dale). New York: HarperCollins, 1990. *''Farewell to Model T / From Sea to Shining Sea'' (edited by Richard L. Strout). New York: Little Bookroom, 2003. *''In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's most companionable of writers'' (edited by Martha White). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011. *''E.B. White on Dogs'' (edited by Martha White). Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House, 2013. Juvenile *''Stuart Little'' (illustrated by Garth Williams). New York: Harper & Row, 1945. * Charlotte’s Web (illustrated by Garth Williams). New York: Harper, 1952. * The Trumpet of the Swan (illustrated by Edward Frascino). New York: Harper & Row, 1970. *''Salutations! Wit and wisdom from 'Charlotte's Web' (illustrated by Garth Williams). New York: HarperCollins, 1999. *''E.B. White Collection (illustrated by Garth Williams & Edward Frascino). New York: HarperCollins, 1980; Camberwell, Vic: Penguin, 2003. *''Some Pig! A 'Charlotte's Web' picturebook'' (illustrated by Maggie Kneen). New York: HarperCollins, 2007. *''Wilbur's Adventure: A 'Charlotte's Web' picturebook'' (illustrated by Maggie Kneen). New York: HarperCollins, 2008. Collected editions *''The Second Tree From The Corner'' (essays, poems, & sketches). New York: Harper, 1954. *''An E.B. White Reader'' (edited by William Whyte Watt & Robert Whitmore Bradford). New York: Harper, 1966. Edited *''A Subtreasury of American Humor'' (edited by E.B. White and Katharine Sergeant Angell White). New York: Coward-McCann, 1941. Letters * Letters of E.B. White (edited by Lobrano Guth). New York: Harper & Row, 1976. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:E.B. White, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 21, 2015. See also *List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems *E.B. White at the Poetry Foundation. *E.B. White at PoemHunter (1 poem). ;Prose * miNYstories based on Here is New York * "The Ring of Time" – (essay by E.B. White) ;Audio / video * Video – In the Words of E. B. White *E.B. White at YouTube ;Books *E.B. White at Amazon.com ;About *E.B. White in the Encyclopædia Britannica *E.B. White at Biography.com * E.B. White at NNDB. * Category:1899 births Category:1985 deaths Category:Cornell University alumni Category:American essayists Category:American poets Category:Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal winners Category:Newbery Honor winners Category:World federalists Category:Writers from Maine Category:The New Yorker people Category:Writers of style guides Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets